Let me start by apologizing for the not so creative blog title, but that is exactly how I felt when I found out that we had the processor save the lard from our last hog. "LARD!!!!!!! You can't be serious! Gigantic white chunks of fat, vacuum packed and in the freezer?"
After a month or two of pretending no such thing existed in my deep freezer, I finally began to tolerate the idea of rendering the lard and actually using it to cook with. After all, the health benefits of lard from a pasture-fed pig is one of reasons we bought into the Large Black hog. Just like the majority of our farm experiences, this was something totally new to both of us. So off we went researching... again! Within a few weeks we came up with this very simple rendering procedure:
Melt the fat in a large, heavy cast iron dutch oven until completely liquidated.
Let cool slightly.
Strain off any impurities through a wire mesh strainer.
Pour fat into a 9 X 13 dish and let cool.
Place lard into freezer.
When lard is frozen, slice into squares and wrap them for long term freezer storage.
It was only a few days until we were cooking up some fried cube steak. YUM! I must say that all of this reading reminded me of why we chose to grow our own food... and that is another blog post all together!
If you are interested in the health benefits of pasture-raised lard please read these articles:
http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/natural-health-articles/nutrition/trans-fatty-acids-lard-better-than-vegetable-oil-00298.html
http://www.health-report.co.uk/saturated_fats_health_benefits.htm
